In many instances as when working in a large room or outdoors, it becomes necessary to use an electrical appliance such as a power tool. Because the electrical cord on the particular appliance is usually not long enough, an extension cord is often required to connect that appliance to the nearest "live" electrical outlet. It frequently happens that when one goes to use an available extension cord, the cord is twisted and tangled so that a considerable amount of time and effort must be spent straightening it out before it can be used.
To avoid that problem, it has been proposed to store a length of electrical cord on a holder with the cord terminating in a male or female electrical plug supported by the holder. The cord is wound about the holder and when it is necessary to use the cord, only an amount sufficient to stretch between the electrical appliance and the electrical outlet is unwound from the holder. In this way, the electrical cord is kept in reasonably good condition and remains free of knots and tangles.
Holders such as this can be broken down generally into two different types. In the first type illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,167,541; 2,204,939 and 2,561,240, the holder is in the form of a spool or bobbin about which the cord is coiled. An electrical connector mounted to the holder is intended to plug directly into an electrical outlet. This being the case, the length of cord that can be coiled on the holder is quite limited. If the cord is too long, then the holder will not nest properly against the wall or other surface permitting the plug to project sufficiently into the electrical outlet to establish an electrical connection therewith.
Furthermore, many of the holders of that type are relatively expensive to make. This stems primarily from the fact that the holder is actually molded or formed around the conductive elements of the plug so that relatively sophisticated jigs and fixtures are required to form the finished holder.
The other type of holder typified by the one depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 3,290,453 does not plug directly into an electrical outlet. Therefore, the holder itself can be relatively large and carry a considerable length of cord. The free end of the cord, which can be unwound from the holder, is terminated by a male electrical plug which plugs into the wall outlet and the other end of the cord is connected electrically to an electrical outlet mounted on the holder. However, this type of arrangement is disadvantaged in that the holder itself is invariably composed of a relatively large number of separate metal parts which must be connected together. Also a standard electrical outlet box containing an outlet must be anchored to the holder. Consequently, the overall holders of that type are quite expensive to make. Furthermore, they are quite heavy and bulky and therefore troublesome to transport on the job.